As The World Turns
by eoraptor
Summary: A soapy little tale of intrigue and family relations and convoluted love.  no, not THAT kind of love  based on the musings of a Slash Haven member. ONESHOT
1. Chapter 1

"_**As the World Turns"**_

_By Eoraptor_

_AN: Based not on the soap, but on an idea by AlexThePrettyGood which happens to be very Soap Operatic. Kim Possible and all related characters __2002-2007 The Walt Disney Company, this is a fan-created work and not for profit._

_::edit:: for those few of you who opened this to find "And I Feel Fine," Sorry, the site took the wrong document at first, it's fixed now though!  
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><p>Shego looked up from her specially constructed plasma-and-claw resistant cell, and scowled even more deeply than before, "And what are you doing here? I didn't think the director personally interrogated prisoners."<p>

The one-eyed head of Global justice spared the villainess a glance and shrugged slightly, "I wanted to see how the new container was working out. Your powers are a lot more destructive than Frugal Lucre's, after all."

The evil lieutenant snorted and waved a hand at the older woman, "Oh, is that why you let me keep my gloves this time? Well boohoo for you. I don't feel like playing lab rat for you today, and I need a good night's sleep, so I won't be trying to escape any time soon."

"So, she really did a number on you this time, didn't she?" the Director turned to fully face the incarcerated. "You and your employer made her very angry tonight."

Shego wiped her lip, still tasting copper from the split skin there that had yet to fully heal. "Yeah, well if Drakken had told me his plans to start with, I could have told him that screwing with the heart of a teenage girl was a bad idea, especially a redhead."

"And you had no part in this whatsoever?" Betty spared the imprisoned woman an accusatory glance, "I already have preliminary reports you know."

With a derisive snort, the thief gave her jailer a dirty look, "Oh of course you do. Yeah, I may have pushed a few buttons, but not like that's out of the ordinary for me. Now Drakken pulling off a working plan, ~that's~ new and unexpected."

"Well, you're certainly right there." The director nodded, an uncertain glance dancing through her lone eye. "Do you think he's really stepped up his performance level?"

Shego eyed her jailer for a long moment. Giving out the dole on her boss was not specifically barred in her contract, but it was still bad form. With a shrug, she decided this, at least, could be shared.

"I doubt it. If this was a new burst of energy for him, I think getting taken down by the blond sidedick probably drained it all out of him." She laid back along the bunk in the special cell and looked wanly at the ceiling.

"Sidedick eh?" Betty sighed and shook her head. "You ought to be careful how you refer to him in the future. I have a feeling he is becoming much more important."

"Oh please," the green woman snorted again, trying to clear a blood clot in her sinuses as much as showing her distaste, "Don't tell me you're still on all that Ron Factor bull shit?"

"You have to admit, Shego, that not only did he face down a killer synthodrone, but that he also provided the spark of inspiration Miss Possible needed at the right moment."

"Firstly," Shego immediately rose to challenge Stoppable's qualities, "It was his portable penis that stopped 901, not the dork himself. And secondly… fuck it. Who cares?"

Betty blinked her eye and frowned. It was very unlike the bombastic thief to deflate like that. After a moment, she felt she saw where the malaise was coming from, "You know, Shego… if you would just speak up about your feelings on the situation,"

"That what?" suddenly the fire was back in the mercenary's eyes as she leapt off of the bed and stormed right up to the transparent wall, "That everything would magically work out? That I'd no longer be a wanted criminal? That sh- that someone would see me as redeemable? Sure didn't work before!"

With a bitter sigh, Doctor Director shook her head, "What your brother did was a bit extreme, but you know that it came from good intentions."

"Yeah, because narcing out his sister to the police about breaking a rapist's arm was so well intentioned!" in a reflex, her hands exploded in flame as she stood and glared at the director.

"Shego… you know your family dynamics have always been… complicated." Betty held up her hands, "I don't think sibling rivalry played any part in that incident."

"No… just his all-superior ego." She spat a flaming green gob against the wall. It quickly fizzled without so much as welting the material. "Huh, really does work this time, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does," She nodded warily, watching the taller, younger woman through the partition. "Now, about your relationship with Kimberly…"

"What relationship?" Shego nearly screamed, the last words the vexing redhead had said to her flooding back, "Do you know what she said to me? Right before she tried to kill me?"

Arching her surviving eyebrow, the director paid closer attention. Her impression was that it had been one more fight, and that Possible had merely had fortune to completely incapacitate her…. Foe. Apparently Shego felt differently, "No, Shego? What did she say to you?"

"She said" and here Shego held up one gloved hand, pantomiming a mouth, "'Do you know what I really hate, Shego?' No, what? 'You!'."

"Shego, don't you think it's about time you told her how you feel about her?"

"Tell her what?" the villainess growled and huffed, "What should I tell the girl who kicked me into a six story tall concrete pylon which then collapsed on top of me while she gleefully watched?

"You could start by telling her that you don't hate her," Betty supplied simply, "and that you'd like to do more than not hate her."

"Oh, easy for you to say." Shego growled darkly, "She still thinks you're the greatest thing since Ian Flemming. It's that sidekick of yours she can't stand."

"Don't talk about your little brother that way, Shego." The director finally resorted to glaring at the younger woman. "Just because he provided evidence about you to the authorities that was, perhaps distorted by point of view, does not mean that Will was wrong to be honest."

"Easy for you to say," Shego sneered, "You're not the one convicted of assault and battery for yanking a perverse little fucker off of an innocent woman. So tell me why the hell I should play for the good guys again? I make every bit as much money as you do, plus I have all the vacation I could want, as well as a Grecian villa and a private masseuse, all tax free. And it only took ~me~ six years. Why should I be good?"

"Because then you might have a shot with Kimberly."

"DON'T TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE, MOM!"

This time, her hands exploded with enough heat to trigger the sprinklers in the cell. She sputtered and howled like a doused cat. The Director reached out after a moment and smacked the cutoff button, glaring at her daughter. "I hope that that cooled you off at least a little."

Glaring archly at the ceiling, the villainess growled, "So where is the little bastard, anyway?"

With a bitter sigh, Betty shook her head, "He's not a bastard. You both know who your father is. In fact, if you hadn't thrown a temper tantrum at him that summer, you would have been in Madrid with Will when the comet hit."

"Yeah, you really know how to pick 'em, don't you, Mom?" Shego rolled her eyes darkly, "Vacillating between Hego's dad and old Triple S for almost twenty years?"

"Shego. I think by now you know that women of our stature have… difficult personalities." Betty let go a breath, looking at her daughter. "I loved Hector and Antonio for different reasons. I still do."

"Oh fuck you." Shego turned her back, "You have no room to lecture me about my love life, or lack thereof. At least I've only got eyes for one person."

"If I am lead to understand," Betty sighed, not sure divulging this was a good idea, "then you are not the only one with eyes for her. I am told that Ronald escorted Kimberly back to her Junior Prom after I dismissed them."

"Escorted?" the captive villainess growled dangerously.

"Arm in arm."

"GOD DAMN IT!" Again there was an explosion of flames, followed by a torrent of cold water.

Betty decided that, perhaps, her troublesome only daughter should remain in GJ custody for the evening, "She who hesitates is lost, Shego."

"and she who gets kicked into space by the girl she loves is lost too…" the evil lieutenant bemoaned. "At this rate, I might as well take up with Drakken."

"Oh Shego, don't even joke."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2, set in early season 4**_

"But I don't get it," Wade looked with utter confusion at the visage of Doctor Director on his screen. "Will Du is… Chinese… I mean, everything about him is Asian."

The round hacker had stepped into it when he had told a joke about Will and the director being joined at the hip. But rather than receiving a dressing down, he was being privileged to family history in the interest that such jokes not be perpetuated.

"That would be my mother's genetics shining through," Betty sighed. "His sister is surprisingly the same way. Despite their father's looks, they both are strongly influenced otherwise."

"Sister?!" Wade nearly sprayed sparkling water across his monitor. There's someone out there who is as uptight as Will Du, but with Ovaries?!"

"Mister Loade," the director scowled darkly, "Clearly you need to work on your socialization. Do not refer to someone's children in such a manner to their face, for instance. But no. William's sister is, frankly, his polar opposite in personality."

Wade sighed and hung his head, chastised. "But who is she? Is it someone we've met?"

"I am not at liberty to discuss that, Mister Loade." Betty's response was clipt and cool.

"Ah," the chubby hacker grinned, "So it is. So, someone who is Will's opposite in personality, looks Asian, and whom Team Possible has dealt with… Well, that rules out Doctor Shin. The Director of the Space Center is probably too old to be your daughter."

"You flatter me," Betty deadpanned, indicating she felt anything but, and trying to dissuade the young computer expert. "but I am not at liberty to speak about her."

"And you really don't want me to know who she is, apparently." Wade arched a brow as he chewed on his straw and thought aloud, "Which probably means she was more than just a ride."

"Mister Loade, you are walking into dangerous territory here." The director cautioned.

"Hmmm, exotic looking, free-wheeling, we have met her more than once… Elsa Cleeg is too old as well, older than you even maybe. Hmmmmm, Yori maybe… but I've seen her transcripts, I would have noticed if they'd redacted her parentage on purpose." Continuing to think aloud, the hacker called up a dossier of everyone team possible had dealt with over the years.

"Mister Loade, I am going to terminate this transmission, see to it that your uncouth nature does not repeat any of those jokes or-,"

"What?! No Way!" Wade suddenly jeered as he looked across all of the pictures he now saw. Only one of them looked remotely Asian and met all the other criteria he had set forth himself. "Shego is your daughter?! But how?!"

The fact that Doctor Director had not cut off the channel told him he was probably right. "and Will Du is her brother? Man, you weren't kidding when you said they were opposites! Who's the father?! And how did I miss that Will was related to Team Go? And man you sure look well trimmed for having six kids!"

Betting pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Someone really needed to teach this boy some boundaries. The fact that he had so easily gotten basic information out of her was all the more disturbing. It explained why he was such an exper hacker, if all it took was a few questions for him to unlock such secrets. "Mister Loade, I am not at liberty to discuss any of this. Shego is already extremely agitated that Kimberly injured her in New Mexico some months ago. If she learns that anyone else knows about her family, especially Miss Possible…"

Unfortunately for the Director, Wade was already off and running, "Someone who has strong facial features… someone who is obviously intelligent and physically fit, given what we know about the Go's and about Shego and about Will. Hmmmm, would probably be a bit older than you. And who likes big families but is not Chinese, since you said that was your side of the family. Latin maybe then, definitely Catholic. What?! No Way! Señor Senior Sr?! But that would make Junior…"

With a reluctant groan, Doctor Director flipped a switch on her console. The view on her screen showed Wade disappearing, a hidden, and thus-far unused trapdoor opening beneath his seat to swallow him up. A moment later, with a whoosh, and covered by his upset water cup, he was deposited in front of her in her office.

"Mister Loade." She stood up after severing the video link with his bedroom. "I warned you that you were going into dangerous territory. And now here you are, in it."

Wade, who was confused by the sudden change in scenery, looked around. Then he swallowed when he realized where he was and how he must have gotten there. "Uhhhh…"

"Since there is no dissuading your curiosity, I will explain the family dynamic fully. After that we will discuss precisely what you will do that that information." She paced slowly around him. "and don't count on your wireless tracking chip of kimmunicator to save you, this room is shielded from all wireless transmissions. You may as well be on the dark side of the moon without an Ethernet cable in here."

The rotund hacker shivered and swallowed again.

"Yes. Shego is my daughter. And William is my son. They are brother and sister, and frankly, at the moment and for some time now, have had a strong dislike of one another. They also have a different father than Team Go. My sons the super heroes are only Shego and William's half-brothers."

Stepping back to a console, Betty flipped another switch, and the big screen changed. A moment later, Señor Senior Sr. appeared, with a slightly confused look on his face.

"Mi Amor? To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, digital though it is?"

Betty smiled faintly as she considered the older, but deceptively fit and energetic Don, "Antonio, my love… I'm afraid someone is aware of our little arrangement. And you know how our daughter is about that getting out."

Stepping aside, she revealed to SSS that Wade was sitting in her office. The billionaire considered for a moment and frowned, "Yes, I'm afraid she very much has her grandmother Ruiz's temper, doesn't she? And that Young Mister Loade knows is very dangerous indeed. Oh, Mister Loade, I assume by the look on your face that you have heard the rumors about my son and my daughter, and are, how is it the young people say…? Ah yes! Squicked by them?"

Wade nodded dumbly from his seat, paling visibly.

"Well rest assured that those rumors are just that. Shego and Junior are very much siblings, and nothing more than that. Half-siblings, but as close as any full-blooded brother and sister should rightfully be. No more, no less." The elderly, elegant man nodded slowly. "It is, strange, in fact, that she is closer to junior, her "Idiot little brother Tony," than she is to those with whom she shares all of her blood or her remarkable powers."

"B- but… but you tried to kill her… twice… with alligators!" Wade challenged after a stunned moment.

"Ah, if I thought for a moment that my daughter was in any real peril from my pets, I never would have dropped her into the feeding pits." Senior chuckled smoothly and shook his head. "In fact, the second time was an attempt to get her to call out to the woman she loved. A shame that did not work out."

"But… you… you paid her… to train Junior?" Wade tried to puzzle how this strange family dynamic worked.

"What can I say…" the old man laughed, his watery blue eyes gleaming, "She is every bit her father's daughter, and knows how to make money when she can. She would have trained her brother in the ways of villainy if he had asked… but for it to come from me, whom holds the purse strings… Well she knew that she could demand remuneration for her time and talents. That, and we are so much alike in those ways that she and I often come to loggerheads over the simplest things and she dislikes me a bit for reminding her of herself."

After a minute, Wade nodded, accepting that at face value since he knew that Junior had only contacted Shego about crime on his own once, later on, after Shego had originally taken the pretty boy under her wing. Wait a minute… later?

"You said… to make her call out to…"

Betty groaned under her breath again, and shot her Latin paramour a foul look.

"Oh Dear… I've said too much already, haven't I?" Senior wrung his hands on the screen and frowned. He turned a bit to look at Betty and held out his leathery hands, "I was certain that if you were contacting me, it was because he had figured out that Shego is in love with-,"

A sharp hiss cut off the rest of the disclosure as Betty held up a hand for silence, "No… but he probably has now, Papi. Please, give my regards to Tony when you see him, but I think we're done here."

With a sigh, the billionaire hung his head, "Yes, I suppose my foolish old tongue has said too much, hasn't it mi Corazon? I suppose I should expect a fiery headed guest here soon for that?"

"I'll do my best to stop that from happening…" Without further words, Betty cut the channel.

"You… and Senior?!" Wade finally choked out, his brain only now fully wrapping around the facts that Shego was Senior's daughter, that Senior and Director were passionate lovers apparently, and that Shego and Junior were apparently brother and sister, and not lovers as Kim strongly suspected.

Betty smiled coyly, both in admittal, and as a way to distract the boy from asking further questions. "You know yourself how… Vigorous… Antonio is. In fact, I ought to thank you and your friends. Had you three not caused him to take up super-villainy as a hobby, I probably would have far fewer excuses to see him than I do."

The hacker nodded dumbly. It had been an incredible shock to learn that Señor Senior Sr. was, in fact, the legendary dark horse extreme sports star "Triple S." If anyone could bear a daughter like Shego, it would almost HAVE to be him. Man, there was some genetics, huh? Doctor Director's curves and cunning, Senior's sophistication and stamina? Then… What was Will Du? The leftovers? Well, he was pretty literal and by the book, the same way his… father…? could be.

"Wait a minute… What is Shego's real name? And why is Will Du named Will Du?" Wade voiced the question more to himself than anyone else.

"Shego prefers to be named Shego." Betty answered quickly, hoping she could at least steer the questions if she could not prevent them, "As much as she can she galls me with that fact by disdaining the name Antonio and I gave her. It's much easier on all of us to not anger her more than needed, so we allow it to be so. William, in the interest of preventing the appearance of nepotism here at Global Justice, uses my mother's maiden name. And since that was before Antonio began engaging in a life of crime, it is even more important that no one realize he is a Senior."

She eyed the rotund computer genius closely as she again circled him. "Now, you understand all the dangers associated with my family. I assume that you will keep it to yourself."

"After all…" she continued dangerously as she stopped directly in front of Wade, "I do not think you want to even imagine what would happen should Kimberly come to know all this, and it get back to my daughter that it was you who told her."

Wade paled visibly and shivered in his chair. Visions of Shego blasting her way into his bedroom laboratory and doing… things… to him dancing before his mind's eye.

"N- no… I don't think that Kim needs to know any of this…" he stammered after a moment. "I mean… it's all a family matter, right? And Kim would understand how family things should all be kept in the family, r- Right?"

"I'm glad we understand each other, Mister Loade." Betty nodded and moved behind her desk. "especially since you are not even aware of the things Shego did to William after he turned her in to the Go City Police Department. It was because of him that Global Justice elected to switch to flame retardant full-body jumpsuit's after all."

Wade twitched in his chair and gripped the edges of it tightly, an insurmountable fear reflex taking hold.

"Have a good day, Mister Loade." Betty moved to press the button that reopened the tunnel between HQ and the boy's clandestine bedroom.

But Wade's mind never ever stopped working. And even if he was forbidden from telling anyone who Shego was related to, he had another question. Senior had said he was trying to get Shego… man, Shego his DAUGHTER! To get Shego to express her love for someone who had been in the room when Junior had 'kidnapped' his own father and some other billionaires. That person was a woman. And Senior feared his "fiery headed" daughter's wrath for revealing it.

"Who is Shego in love wi- eeeEEEEEEE!"

The hacker's question was cut off as he was flushed back to his room, and proceeded to lose his lunch over a combination of motion sickness and nerves.

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><p><em>Look for another chapter in the next few days, until then, remember; <em>

_**Reviews = Love**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3, set… well you can see where it's set.**_

Will looked up from his daily briefing and frowned, "We seem to have company."

Doctor Director also looked up, and then nodded, "You may as well stop skulking, we know you're there…"

"I Do Not Skulk…" Shego emerged from the shadows, huffing indignantly.

"You reek of ozone. You honestly thought we wouldn't know you were in the room?" Will sniffed pointedly, sneering at the taller woman.

"You know what else reeks, knob polisher?" Shego growled darkly at the under-boss, "The freshly charred corpses of my victims… keep pushing it."

"Shego," Doctor Director warned her vitriolic daughter, "Mind your tone. And William, do not antagonize your sister. Now… to what do we owe the pleasure?"

The villainess glared daggers at the other two. After a long moment of controlling herself, "I think we have a situation. What do you know about what went down this weekend?"

"The Saints beat the Forty-Niners?" Will quipped, pretending to consult his briefings.

"Oh I'll beat you…" She growled, clawing a hand down her face, "Mother, heel your lapdog before I neuter him."

"William. Obviously it is important if she came in from the cold voluntarily. Mind your tongue." Betty sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Shego, continue."

"Fine… in case you bunch of knobs weren't paying attention, we had a visit from on high, and I don't mean the Jehova's Witness I incinerated at my door." She sneered, flicking some imagined dust off the sleeve of her suit. "Have I got your attention now? Good."

She flipped a data drive onto the desk in front of her law-abiding family as she began to pace, "Her name is Warmonga, or so she kept bellowing at every provocation. Nine feet of muscle and about nine ounces of brain. And she ain't from around here."

As Shego narrated, Agent Du reluctantly plugged in the data stick, and began to examine what was apparently security footage from Drakken's lair, right before it was obscured by some sort of steel wall that seemed to grow up out of nowhere. "Note the vacuum packed hardware. She pulled out a geegaw the size of one of my smaller personal assistants and turned it into a six foot long plasma-stave."

Betty watched her daughter pace and frowned. It took a lot to rattle the hell-brand, and to send her running here, it troubled the director of Global Justice, "Formidable. But you're here. So what changed?"

"She's gone. For the moment anyway. And that is what concerns my glorious green ass. Possible's pesky brothers sent her off on a wild goose chase when she figured out that my boss wasn't the blue-balled messiah she was looking for." She scowled, pointing at the video feed that showed some kinf of spray painted sports mascot on Drakken's video system.

"A chase to where?" Du looked up, apparently a bit perturbed that this was the first that they were hearing about a class one visitation.

"Pluto. Not even a real damned planet." Shego snorted, smirking a bit. "But that's not what bugs me."

"You're concerned what happenes when she gets to Pluto, figures out that she's been duped, and comes back." The Director nodded morosely, considering the data arrayed before her.

Shego laid a finger aside her nose, nodding, "Bingo. I'm no rocket scientist… but I'm not a mucking foron either. That's wonder boy here's job."

Will scowled at his older sibling darkly, but held his tongue.

"See, If she can really travel from an alien civilization light-whatevers away… It's not going to take her all that long to haul ass across our dinky little neighborhood and figure out she's been jimmied. And then it will take her even less time to come back." Shego scowled.

"Why didn't you just do her in then?" Will glared at his sister, "Shooting first and asking questions later is your strong suit, after all."

Shego narrowed her eyes, memories of being shackled flooding back. She suppressed them, with some effort, and took a deep calming breath; making good the appearance of calming herself. "You want to know why I'm here instead of mounting her spine in a display case?"

And then she stormed the room, lifted her smaller sibling out of his chair bodily, and threw him through the holographic projector with one arm, "See that? She did that to me… to ME! That's not a ride I intend to repeat. Now, if you don't mind… get off your glorified asses, and earn the GLOBAL part of your titles and defend the fucking globe!"

It took him several moments, but Will peeled himself out of the wreckage of the projector and glared daggers at Shego. He reached for his Stop-Watch with foul intent as he stepped free.

"Stand down, Agent Du." Doctor Director held up her hand, signaling to her son and second to back off, "And check yourself into the infirmary. I don't like the way you're bleeding."

Will touched his forehead, apparently unaware of the wound, and then renewed his glare at his combative older sibling. With a snort of derision, he made his way out of the briefing room.

Once assured that her son was well out of ear shot, Doctor Director glared, "I suppose it's pointless to bill you for the projector?"

"No, but I'll chip in a c-note for his stitches… I know his face is his money maker," Shego scoffed, sitting down in Will's abandoned chair and kicking her feet up on her mother's desk.

"Why are you really here Shego?" Betty frowned, again looking at the arrayed data on the alien menace, "I know you. Being thrown into a television isn't enough to phase you. Hell, you and Hego barely counted that as rough-housing."

Shego looked away, scowling. "I'm not fifteen any more. It ain't my job to play alien punching bag. That's YOUR job. Remember… GLLLLLOOOOOOOBBBBAAAALLLLL Justice?"

"Mathilde…"

Shego's eyes flashed up at the mention of her birth name. If she'd had that ability, she'd have shot lasers out of her eyes through her mother's forehead for invoking it.

Betty sighed and shook her head, "Your grandmother, rest her immortal soul, was thrilled when we named you that."

"Say it again… you're no spring chicken either. We'll see how well you bounce off the TV screen." Shego's tone dripped acid and brooked no arguments.

The director sighed darkly and shook her head. "Fine. Shego. Explain to me why you're really here."

After a good two minutes of petulant silence, Shego finally relented, "I couldn't stop her mom. SHE couldn't stop her… and I couldn't save her either. It took a Halloween prank by those idiot brothers of hers to call of the hell-bitch."

"She coul- Kim was there?"

Shego sighed morosely. And then peeled off her gloves. She held up her hands, showing them to her mother, "When was the last time you saw me with these?"

Betty gasped, almost rising from her seat, motherly concern briefly over-riding professional prescience. But she caught herself, knowing better than to embarrass her daughter; and also knowing better than to get within arm's reach of her, lest she make good on her earlier threat. "Blisters? Not… not since you were eleven and tried to hold on to the bottle rocket."

"Exactly… pre-meteor." Shego looked at her hands with long consideration, shaking her head. "Alien Manacles. And matching booties. Nigh indestructible ones. Hego couldn't have flexed out of these things. I should know, I gave him one of the scraps to test his mettle on."

"Hego knows?"

"No… you think I'm fucking stupid enough to tell my half-twit brother that aliens are real? No, I just told him it was one of Drakken's experiments gone awry, and to go to town on it." The villainess shook her head sharply. "He couldn't even twist it. Though not sure if that's the metal, or that I fire-hardened it first. Either way, cut his hand up."

"So… you talked to your big brother first… and then you… came here…?" Betty processed the situation as quickly as she could. "Still, these are not the sorts of things that stagger you. Not this much. Again. Why?"

"Grrrrragh!" Shego shot forward, slamming her palms down on the conference table, "Were you not listening?! I could not stop this bitch! Kim could not stop this bitch! I could not…"

"Could not what…?" the director and mother probed.

Shego finally looked up, glaring, "She almost killed Kimmie. If I hadn't popped her at just the right moment, my princess would be a ginger smear on the floor of a space ship right now."

Betty almost rose to that: The use of the possessive. Still, the trained interrogator in her refrained. "You're right. That is… concerning. That even the two of you could not ease the situation. We will look into it and start preparing defenses… but in case you failed to notice… this is GLLLLLOOOOOOOBBBBAAAALLLLL Justice. We provide justice ON the globe, not above it."

Shego sneered as her mother parroted her and pushed the buttons only family knew to push, "You got a better suggestion on where I should go? Remember, I been to Area 51. I know it's nothing more than a glorified nerd museum."

The Director chewed her lip. The director of that facility was a personal friend. So she was well acquainted with her daughter's "visit." After a moment, she shook her head, "You're right… it's not exactly the kind of situation you can look in the phone book for."

The villainess snorted and rose to excuse herself, her message delivered. Until her mother stopped her with a word.

"A moment, Miss Go."

It was like a lightning bolt up her spine, and she spun, glaring at her mother and foe.

"Yes, I know… you hardly think I'd miss something like that? Five of my six children, hit by an emotion ray? One of them getting an honest job?"

"How much…" Shego glared, holding her temper as best as she could. She wanted that entire incident dead and buried. It made her feel filthy. "How much do you know?"

The Director didn't respond. Instead she picked up her data pad and flicked a few things on screen. A moment later the backup hologram projector rose from a hatch in the floor. "Let's see here… there's this…"

Miss Go's forged transcripts appeared. "Incidentally; I'll pay you if you give me your man's name. I can use talent like this."

She blanched. Licking her lips, she shook her head, "I'll- I'll keep it in mind."

"Oh… then there's this." A receipt. Dinner for four. Chez Pierre's.

"Also, of course, these…"

Shego needed no prompting to identify the shattered remains of the re-purposed Attitudinator, now called a Reverse Polarizer… or junk.

"Our people can't even begin to determine what modifications she made to it to make it work the way it did. So I'm afraid she's stuck as she is for now. Lucky for you that you're not, eh?"

If the villainess was pale before. She turned as white as a sheet when a video appeared. It was her, as Miss Go, clenching her hands in a nervous manner, talking to Kim Possible in the streets of Go City as a patty wagon drove away with what was presumably Electronique in the back.

Now that Shego knew to look, she could just make out Drakken's hoverpod in the background, approaching at unsafe speed, and Stoppable fumbling with the helmet. The view was from some kind of security camera.

"How in the…" Shego grit her teeth, looking darkly at the visage, "How the heck did you know where to get that?"

"NSA… The Americans are so proud of their surveillance gathering system…. That they don't think for one damned moment that someone else could do the exact same thing to them that they do to the people around them." Betty shook her head reproachfully, "Remind me to show you what they do to each other sometimes… you haven't read Orwell's fever dream until you see a nineteen year old intern run a level five security sweep to see what his girlfriend is up to while he's at work."

The villainess didn't need to be told or shown. It was yet another reason she chose willingly to live in underground caverns with a blue madman. It beat the alternative.

"Let me guess," The director indicated the silent video playing away, "Actually, I don't have to guess, after interviewing Ella, I know how eager to please you must have been in that state of mind. Your perfect alter-ego was just about to tell Kim that you love her."

Shego bit back the rush of bile to the back of her throat. A remote controlled puppet had been running her body at the time. It was like being perpetually raped, in her considered estimation. The less she was reminded of it the better, and right now her mother seemed to be taking joy in reminding her acutely. "You have a point here?"

"Hmmm… I would tell you that you should tell Kim, particularly if what we discussed about the Aliens is true." Betty intoned after a long moment. "But we both know that telling you to do something is the surest way to ensure it never happens. However… I do wonder if you want this back?"

A printer on the conference table whirred, and spat out a long, narrow, glossy strip.

Every drop of blood drained from Shego's body. She needn't see it to know precisely what her mother had lain her hands on, "How in the ever-loving dark embrace of Hell do you have that?"

Betty fingered it softly, considering the four vignettes painted with a keen but unreadable eye, "Middleton is not that big a town. One shopping mall, three photo-sitting booths inside it. Knowing that your alter-self would do precisely what the true you would be loathed to do, it was not a stretch to think you had done very sociable things like take in a movie, get ice cream, maybe even goof around in a photo-matte. I had someone grab the data-corders a few weeks back. Yes they really do save the shots they take, for a week at least. Sadly their memories fill up rather quickly, so things are not saved in perpetuity."

She watched the strip, not really looking at her daughter, "We got lucky. Yours was the oldest data file on one recorder. We would have lost it had we waited another day. Maybe even a few hours."

Shego glared daggers. Her mother was toying with her… but to what end?

"Do you want it?"

The villainess scoffed.

The director picked up a computer hard drive from the drawer to her left and tossed it at her daughter.

The mal-content grabbed it, and it popped and sizzled in her hands. She hadn't even realized that she'd become so agitated that her fire had ignited on its own until she looked at the slowly cooking electronics in her grasp.

"That was the hard drive. This is now, presumably, the only copy of these in existence. The records state only one other strip was ever printed, and I can only assume you destroyed that in a clear-headed moment to erase any incriminating evidence of your presence." Betty nodded, still holding out the strip. "Now… Do. You. Want. It?"

Shego scowled. After tossing the charred drive into the trash, she willed her hands to extinguish. Then she carefully reached out and took the strip.

"I imagine that this… Barkin, Steve, First Lieutenant, retired, US Army… has no idea the woman he was dating had designs on his star pupil. " Betty rolled her eyes at her daughter's incredulous expression. "Yes, of course I know that. You know how teachers love to gossip. And it was an incredibly simple matter to call him in for questioning after he was picked up on Drakken's Island with dog bites all over him."

The darker woman glared, and had to forcibly resist incinerating this strip of photos the way she had the earlier copy in shocked surprise.

"Shego, I am not going to tell you who to see or what to do… but I know what I see when I look at those pictures. I see a happy woman. And it's not the same synthetic digital saccharine that I saw in Ella's eyes when I interrogated her. Keep that in mind. I'll see what I can do about your Alien. But you might keep in mind how close you came to losing her without saying a damned thing."

Before Shego could do anything to respond, the seat she was perched in disappeared, and she was sucked into one of Global Justice's benighted tubes, still clutching the restored photos.

Betty shook her head. Her daughter… despite her many personality quirks and her well-hidden intelligence... was still easily taken in by a bit of theater. She smirked as she printed off another strip of photos. As if she would destroy such a powerful little memento. Sooner or later, a certain redhead was bound to turn up wanting a copy or three. Or perhaps she could send them to Ronald, just to nudge things in a new direction.


End file.
